Marriage Equality and Passover: "From Degradation to Praise"
This Passover, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) will hear two cases that have enormous impact on equality and liberty in our country. On the first two days of Pesach, oral arguments in California's Prop 8 case and the Defense of Marriage Act case will be heard.
Rabbi Resources: marriage equality: Sermon resources LGBT
Rabbi resources: LGBT: let my people go
Let My People Go... Forth to the Wedding Chapel!
As a rabbi and president-elect of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, I come here to be with you this morning at the Supreme Court on the very first day of Passover to say: Our nation is ready for marriage equality. This is one of the holiest days of the Jewish calendar. It marks the day in Jewish tradition when we mark the Exodus from slavery in ancient Egypt; it marks the beginning of a journey to freedom. Today is our day to march toward that freedom, the freedom to marry. I represent more than 2,500 Reform rabbis. We support marriage equality and have filed Friends of the Court briefs in both today's Prop 8 case and tomorrow's DOMA case. Do not let others tell you that all religions oppose LGBT equality rights. We Reform Jews welcome, support, include, and, yes, advocate full rights and equality, including the right to marry the ones we love.
Sermon resources: LGBT: breaking the glass
Reform Wedding at the Knesset Pt. 2
Today there was a Reform wedding outside the Knesset. Lin and her new husband exchanged vows in a ceremony officiated by Rabbi Gilad Kariv and Rabbi Kinneret Shiryon. Friends, family, members of the Israeli Reform Movement and its youth group, rabbinical students, and five members of the Knesset (known as MKs) attended the wedding.
sermon resources: lgbt: a long night of advocacy
Reform Jewish Leader Praises Administration Plan to Bar LGBT Discrimination in Federal Contracts
In response to reports that the administration will ban discrimination by federal contractors against LGBT workers, Rabbi David Saperstein, Director of the Religious Action Center, issued the following statement:
Why I Marched, as a Rabbi, at the World Pride Parade
I mentioned to someone a few weeks ago that I would be marching at the World Pride Parade taking place at the end of June in my hometown of Toronto.